I absolutely love the raw beauty of these richly colored images of age-old New York City storefronts from James and Karla Murray‘s book Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York. (I used to live right around the corner from this bicycle shop on E 17th!) Sadly, at least a third of the stores in the book have closed since its publication, making the photographs evoke even more feelings of nostalgia in New Yorkers, visitors and ex-pats alike.

I understand the interest and nostalgia of such photos as I grew up with such stores in the Midwest and saw their demise when urban renewal was pushed in the 60’s, now there are just a lot of empty parking lots. Most of the stores were “Mom and Pop” stores, and there were such grocery stores every block surrounded by old homes, many families lived in the back of the store and they had a bell that would ring when the front door was opened. I do think there are some such stores but most have been replaced with franchises, such as Casey’s convenient stores and Walmart Neighborhood Stores. I wonder if there are such stores in Jewish or ethic neighborhoods in the big cities?